What are the Characteristics of Indigenous Peoples
What are the Characteristics of Indigenous Peoples?
1. They practice a “traditional” subsistence strategy (hunting-and-gathering, pastoralism, or horticulture)
2. autochthony/first-ness/priority of residence/original inhabitants
3. Distinctive “customary laws” and culture and religions and worldview; differs from the dominant laws and culture of the nation
4. strong sense of identity—who they are as a community, what their past is
5. conquered/non-dominant/minority/oppressed
6. egalitarian societies without centralized political institutions
7. non-white
8. isolation; living in extreme climates; locally-oriented
9. globally allied/members of transnational advocacy networks
10. self-defined
11. less materialistic and market-oriented, more spiritual and reciprocal
12. more connected with environment
“guardians of the earth”; “ecologically noble savage”
13. place-bound: living in a distinct territory
14. mobile
15. small size, minority within their nations
16. perceived by others as being “exotic,” “primitive,” “backwards”
Alternative terminology
(although these words do not have the same power or global familiarity as the term “indigenous peoples”)
Aboriginals
Natives
4th World Peoples
1st Nations
Tribes (mainly in India)
What Threats do Indigenous Peoples Face?
1. nuclear testing
2. appropriation of land due to . . .
urbanization
roads
tourism and development
--ski mountains
--“cultural prostitution”—using “exotic” cultural practices to lure in tourists
Creating nature or forest preserves/national parks
Extractive industries (see below)
Farmers or agribusiness
ranching
3. extractive industries not only take away lands, but impact the lands that remain
logging
mining—uranium, gold, copper, lead, coltan
water
4. dam construction
5. neoliberal policies/free market policies
NAFTA
Structural Adjustment programs
--Lowers producer prices as a result of global competition
--Dismantles government-run healthcare, welfare, and educational institutions so poor people cannot access these services
--Devalues currency, leading to massive inflation
--Preferential trade between 1st world and 3rd world countries, which formerly supported markets for certain goods (like bananas) is obliterated and these markets flounder
--Exports are favored over imports, so imported goods like farm machinery, fertilizers, drugs, and certain foods become more expensive, exacerbating the inflation caused by devaluation
--Government agencies are downsized to be more efficient, so many civil servants lose their jobs
6. Drug trafficking/addiction and alcoholism
7. Disease
--changes in diets lead to diabetes, other “diseases of development”
--infectious diseases (many indigenous peoples do not have adequate resistance to Western diseases)
--working in toxic mines
--stress-related diseases due to changes in work
--HIV-AIDs
8. War and genocide
9. Environmental damage by corporations or states or other institutions
Damaging seascapes by ships
Oil spills
Topic dumping—including nuclear waste
Extractive infrastructure—noisy, polluting
Military test flights
10. Propaganda, media passing on erroneous information
11. Deleterious Government policies
--preventing border passage to groups that live in two countries
--preventing people as identifying themselves as members of an indigenous group
--requiring documentation to land
12. Capital-seeking by indigenous peoples, as in casinos or other endeavors that lead to in-fighting over profits and group membership
13. Forced assimilation
--education
--missionaries
--army recruiting
14. Migration
15. Climate or environmental change (animals and plants die, ecosystems are changed, traditional strategies of food procurement cannot be continued)
--global warming (“global wierding”)
--drought and desertification
16. Language death
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